How do Victorian attitudes to marriage and respectability underpin the comic elements of the importance of being Earnest?
13. How do Victorian attitudes to marriage and respectability underpin the comic elements of the importance of being Earnest?
Plan:
Jack and Algernons alter egos,
Wilde and his social rebellion through his characters.
Marriage is loveless, wealth and background takes priority over most things, Algernon supports this with a quote (once again hes the rebel) Marriage is the end of freedom,
Cecily wants to break free, very curious woman who looks at society differently. takes a liking to Algernon because of this. Quote below
Secret lives of the boys, humour in the peter pan like qualities quote: "A man who marries without knowing Bunbury [an excuse for pleasure] has a very tedious time of it."
"I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time."
"You won't be able to disappear to London quite so frequently as your wicked custom was."
"I think some preliminary enquiry on my part would not be out of place."
In the importance of being Earnest written by Oscar wilde, he gives us two characters Jack and Algernon these two characters live double lives to get out of situations that they do not desire to be in, In Victorian society men and woman would have to uphold there respect and duties at all time. The two men create "Bunburying" which allows them to misbehave without upsetting there piers and letting go of their high moral standards of the upper class. Jack creates Ernest his sick brother to get out of situations that he doesn't want to be in. Its ironic for jack as he creating a false image of himself in that people would see Jack as far more moral and responsible then he actually is. Algernon however uses "bunbury" to escape to the country side in peace, while playing it off that he is doing work for poor Christian charities, it was common for the upper class to do this in Victorian times as their moral duty however Oscar Wilde specifically gives these two men
Plan:
Jack and Algernons alter egos,
Wilde and his social rebellion through his characters.
Marriage is loveless, wealth and background takes priority over most things, Algernon supports this with a quote (once again hes the rebel) Marriage is the end of freedom,
Cecily wants to break free, very curious woman who looks at society differently. takes a liking to Algernon because of this. Quote below
Secret lives of the boys, humour in the peter pan like qualities quote: "A man who marries without knowing Bunbury [an excuse for pleasure] has a very tedious time of it."
"I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time."
"You won't be able to disappear to London quite so frequently as your wicked custom was."
"I think some preliminary enquiry on my part would not be out of place."
In the importance of being Earnest written by Oscar wilde, he gives us two characters Jack and Algernon these two characters live double lives to get out of situations that they do not desire to be in, In Victorian society men and woman would have to uphold there respect and duties at all time. The two men create "Bunburying" which allows them to misbehave without upsetting there piers and letting go of their high moral standards of the upper class. Jack creates Ernest his sick brother to get out of situations that he doesn't want to be in. Its ironic for jack as he creating a false image of himself in that people would see Jack as far more moral and responsible then he actually is. Algernon however uses "bunbury" to escape to the country side in peace, while playing it off that he is doing work for poor Christian charities, it was common for the upper class to do this in Victorian times as their moral duty however Oscar Wilde specifically gives these two men